Nunhead: Historic Cemetery Arboretum With Free Sunday Tours

Nunhead Cemetery covers 52 acres of woodland in south-east London, and the main gates are on Linden Grove, SE15 3LP, where there is free parking. It opened in July 1840, and from November to March it is open 8.30am to 4pm, so it rewards a morning visit. Entry is free, and on most Sunday afternoons the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery lead free guided walks from the Linden Grove gate at 2pm.

Nunhead was one of London's Victorian garden cemeteries, laid out by a private company to bury a growing city and to look like a landscaped park while doing it. The formal plan still shows at the main gate, where two neo-classical lodges frame the entrance and a formal avenue of towering limes runs straight uphill towards the chapel. Step off that avenue, though, and the formality disappears almost at once.

After the company that owned it failed, the cemetery was left alone for decades, and the trees did what trees do. Self-sown ash, sycamore and birch rose between the graves, ivy climbed the headstones and the paths narrowed to tracks. Today the whole site is a designated nature reserve, and the result is the wildest of London's great Victorian cemeteries, where many monuments stand in what feels like ancient woodland.

The lime avenue is the one piece of Nunhead that still looks exactly as its Victorian designers intended. In late October the leaves turn butter-yellow and drop onto the wide path in a thick carpet, and the trunks line up like columns towards the chapel at the top. Walk it slowly from the Linden Grove gate; it is the best introduction to the scale of the place before you plunge into the side paths.

The chapel at the head of the avenue is a pale stone Gothic shell, gutted by fire and still roofless in parts, and it is the stage for the cemetery's bigger events. The Annual All Souls Service is held there on Sunday 1 November at 2pm. On selected open afternoons the Friends run short crypt and chapel visits at 2.15pm, 3pm and 3.45pm, but the chapel and crypt are not currently wheelchair accessible.

Families are welcome, but this is not a playground. Children love the hide-and-seek scale of the woods, yet many headstones are loose, and some old vaults have sunk, leaving hollows under the ivy. Keep small children on the main paths, especially near the chapel. Bring binoculars if you have them: the canopy is busy with woodpeckers, jays and tits in autumn, and the quieter eastern paths are best for spotting them.

Nunhead's best-known secret is a view. At the top of the site a gap has been cut through the trees, and through it you can see St Paul's Cathedral, about four miles away across south London. It is easy to miss, so follow the paths uphill beyond the chapel and look for the clearing where people stand in silence. Clear, cold mornings after rain give the sharpest view of the dome.

The walk up is steeper than it looks from the gate, and the side paths are muddy and root-crossed from October to March. Wear boots, allow at least an hour for the main loop, and do not rely on phone maps under the canopy. The regulars here are dog walkers from Nunhead and Peckham, birdwatchers with binoculars, and local families who treat the cemetery as their nearest wood.

The Friends of Nunhead Cemetery run guided walks on Sunday afternoons, and no booking is needed for the scheduled tours. They are free, with a suggested minimum donation of £3 per person, and they last one and a half to two hours depending on weather and questions. Assemble inside the Linden Grove entrance, not at the Limesford Road gate, which is used only by arrangement.

November's programme shows the range: a Great War Veterans and Connections tour on Sunday 8 November, Cemetery Symbols on 15 November, a Woodland Trail Tour on 22 November and a General Tour on 29 November, all at 2pm. If you only go on one, pick the woodland trail for this keyword; the guides point out which trees were planted and which seeded themselves after the cemetery was abandoned.

Skip Nunhead if you want polished Victorian grandeur with every stone legible. Many monuments are tumbled, broken or swallowed by ivy, and the paths are uneven enough to put off anyone unsteady on their feet. What Nunhead does better than its neighbours is atmosphere: it is the most overgrown of London's great Victorian cemeteries, and the St Paul's view rewards the climb.

Watch the season closely. Winter hours end at 4pm, and in fading light the far paths are genuinely dark under the trees, so arrive by 2pm if you want time to reach the viewpoint. If a tour is full or the weather is poor, Peckham Rye Park, a short walk west, has open lawns and the formal Sexby Garden, and the Sunday tour runs again the following week.

Nunhead station is a short walk from the Linden Grove gate, with direct trains from Victoria and Blackfriars every day. Nunhead's small high street, along Evelina Road, has cafés and a pub for a warm-up afterwards. For a longer day, walk west to Peckham Rye Park and on to Rye Lane, where Peckham's markets and bars take over by late afternoon.

Main gates: Linden Grove, London SE15 3LP, with free parking by the gates. A second gate is on Limesford Road. Opening hours: November to March, 8.30am to 4pm; April to September, 8.30am to 7pm. Entry is free. Toilets and secure bag storage are on site. Group tours must be booked in advance with the Friends of Nunhead Cemetery by phone on 07862 098058, with a suggested donation of £5 per person.

The Annual Act of Remembrance is held at the Limesford Road gates on Sunday 8 November at 10.45am, so expect a crowd that morning. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to time a Sunday visit around the 2pm tour, with lunch on Evelina Road beforehand and the walk to Peckham Rye afterwards.